The number of reports of labor exploitation handled by the Inspectorate increased after 2018. In the preceding years, it fluctuated around seventy cases. In 2019, it already rose to 106, according to the report. The following year it rose to 160, the Inspectorate spokesperson now reports.
But there were no more criminal cases. In 2016, more than a quarter of the reports led to a criminal investigation, in 2019 only 4 percent. Last year, that bounced slightly, according to the Inspectorate. An investigation is now underway in 10 percent of the 160 reports.
“We are very limited by the legislation,” the spokesperson explains for the low number of criminal cases. “The concept of labor exploitation must be interpreted more broadly. Now it is only exploitation if, for example, someone’s passport has been taken away or if someone is not allowed to leave the site. But not if someone only gets five euros per hour.”
Detour through administrative law
In order to tackle offenders, the Inspectorate is also trying another route, that of administrative law. In 2019, the Social Affairs and Employment Inspectorate increased the number of inspectors from four to ten. The result: the number of violations detected shot up from 16 in 2017 to 37 in 2019. But the number of fines remained virtually the same.
“Employment agencies have become more sophisticated during that period,” the spokesperson said. “If you fine them, they will declare themselves bankrupt on Monday and set up a new employment agency on Wednesday. Administrative law is an emergency measure, but of course not as deterrent as criminal law.”
Changing the law
The House of Representatives is now also asking for amendments to the law. Today became a motion passed van BIJ1 and GroenLinks in which the government is requested to “explore how the legal definition of labor exploitation can be broadened, so that mistreatment and exploitation of labor migrants in the Netherlands become punishable”.
The Court of Audit makes a similar appeal to the Minister of Social Affairs. The minister’s response to the report states that the government also considers an amendment to the law desirable. But: “this requires a missionary cabinet”. So it is still waiting for the formation.
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